Christin Khan is currently flying for the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center right whale aerial survey team based out of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She has previously led right whale aerial surveys with Wildlife Trust and the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. Christin completed her Master of Science in Biology at San Francisco State University with research on vocal development in harbor seals; her work was published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

Monday, August 30, 2010

{Press} Right whale found dead in Digby County

Digby Courier | August 24th, 2010 | Leanne Delong

"Third right whale found dead in three weeks along Atlantic seaboard"

"A North Atlantic right whale was found dead on a beach two kilometers west of Sandy Cove, Digby County, N.S. on Aug. 13.

Fisheries and Oceans met with a local fishing vessel, which hauled the whale to Gulliver’s Cove.

A group from Holland College on Prince Edward Island, including a wildlife pathologist, and a second group from a whale institute on Campobello Island performed a necropsy on Aug. 15, said DFO fisheries officer Philip Bouma.

The researchers started the necropsy at 9 a.m. and stopped 7:30 p.m. that night and then wrapped up by 4 p.m. the next day.

New England Aquarium senior scientist Moira Brown was among those from Campobello Island, and said the whale was about 45 feet long and male.

“There were fractures in the skull and in the rostrum, the upper part of the head and also in the ear bones,” Brown said.

Samples were taken back to Holland College to determine if the fractures occurred before or after the whale died.

“We will try to see if we can match this whale to an individual in our catalogue and we’ll take skin samples to see if we can match the whale with its DNA. If we’ve already sampled it we are probably able to match it,” Brown added.